The Texas Supreme Court has denied Attorney General Ken Paxton's motion to end a lawsuit brought forward by a group of former employees who were terminated after reporting the Republican to the FBI.
The court鈥檚 late Friday ruling means Paxton will have to answer questions under oath in the case that prompted his impeachment last year.
Paxton鈥檚 office didn鈥檛 immediately return a request for comment.
In a statement issued shortly after the ruling, attorneys for whistleblowers Blake Brickman, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley and David Maxwell said, 鈥淲e look forward to the opportunity to finally place the attorney general and the other witnesses under oath and question them about the facts in our lawsuit.鈥�
The four men worked for Paxton in 2020 when they reported him to the FBI. They of abusing his office to help a political donor.
The men were terminated shortly afterward. The group then filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination under the Texas Whistleblower Act.
Last year, both parties announced they had reached for $3.3 million that included an apology from Paxton for calling them 鈥渞ogue employees鈥� in a news release.
But the Texas Legislature refused to appropriate the money to fund the settlement during last year鈥檚 regular session.
Instead, the House of Representatives into the whistleblower claims that resulted in the historic impeachment of Paxton 鈥� the state's first in more that 40 years.
Paxton of all articles of impeachment by the Texas Senate in September.
Status of the whistleblowers' lawsuit
As part of the lawsuit, the four whistleblowers have asked to depose Paxton and three of his top aides: Brent Webster, who serves as the first assistant attorney general; Lesley French Henneke, who serves as chief of staff at the Office of the Attorney General; and Michelle Smith, Paxton鈥檚 senior adviser.
In December, a Travis County District Court judge gave the greenlight for the depositions to move forward, but Paxton appealed the decision.
Last week, the Texas Third Court of Appeals .
But the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court dealt a blow to Paxton on Friday, voting 6-2 to allow the depositions to happen.
Two justices, Jimmy Blacklock and John Phillip Devine, dissented 鈥� arguing, in part, that they would have preferred to allow the deposition of Smith first before reconsidering the necessity of taking testimony from Paxton, Webster and Henneke.
Under the Travis County District Court judge's order, the oral depositions of all involved parties should be taken no later than Feb. 9.
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